I spent most of today at Six Flags for Deaf History Day, but I didn’t spend too much time interpreting. There wasn’t a whole lot there to interpret, to be honest! And yet I didn’t just have time to myself. After handing out schedule flyers at the entrance (only one performance of each show was interpreted), I wandered back to the booths set up by the deaf vendors. That was the place where deaf people seemed to congregate most throughout the day – I suspect something along the lines of “meet me by the vendors” was said more than once today.

At 11:00 I went over to the Looney Tunes theater with my co-terp for that show, but she ended up missing the first two-thirds of it anyway. This was the second time I’d watched the show, and this time I signed along to myself. When the show was over, I took my FastLane tickets over to Two-Face and got to hop right on. I decided to buy the FastLane tickets today (I’d never gotten them before) because I wanted to make sure I got to ride coasters. I had various appointments and responsibilities today, and I didn’t want to waste time standing in line. Because I’d gotten into the park for free, the $10 I spent on five FastLane tickets seemed worth it to me. After Two-Face I realized it was just about 11:30 and time for the performance group Harmony. They did a really excellent job in their signed musical performance; I rather enjoyed it. I had to duck out before the last song, though, because it was time for my stint interpreting at the vendor tables. Not that there was really any work there: we were mostly there for the hearing people walking by, but they were all too scared to ask any questions of the deaf people working the booths.

When we were finished sitting around waiting for somebody to need interpreting, my co-terp for the booths dragged me along (it wasn’t hard) to go on the Rodeo, which I enjoyed. It’s funny, I love going to theme parks but I focus so much on the coasters that I miss out on the smaller rides, which can also be fun. I think in the future I will buy line-jumping passes for the coasters so I can ride the flat rides too. After that I struck out on my own for the Gotham area, where I took my FastLane pass to Joker’s Jinx. While waiting to board I noticed a guy in the regular lines wearing a t-shirt from my high school that was only produced in 1994. I called out to him, and it turned out he graduated a year after me. (My freshman year was 1993-1994, and that’s when they made the shirt, but I guess they had some left over when that guy started the next year.) He didn’t seem too impressed by my interest, which was disappointing, so I let it drop even though I was right behind him after we’d both been on the ride. I went on Batwing next, and then tried to go on Superman but there was a line of people waiting to use their FastLane tickets! I felt I didn’t have enough time before I had to be back at the Looney Tunes theater for my show, so I skipped my favorite ride in the park. On the way back to the front of the park I spotted a previous client that I knew I recognized but couldn’t place; I finally figured it out a while later…thank goodness, or that would have bothered me!

While walking to the front of the park, I decided I couldn’t wait to get a drink and something to eat. I’d had a scoop of Ben & Jerry’s strawberry kiwi sorbet earlier, but I wanted something more. I also decided my feet were hurting and I should sit down for a while, and I decided I didn’t really feel like going on coasters anymore. I bought a soda and popsicle and sat for a bit, and then finally had the opportunity to do what I’d come for! We were told we could walk around the park and have fun, but also to offer help if any deaf people seemed to need it. I saw a family trying to decide where the nearest restroom was, so I directed them to it. After finishing my popsicle, it was time for the Looney Tunes show.

As expected, it was a bit of a disaster. My co-terp arrived just before the show was going to start, and wasn’t prepared at all. It was very difficult to understand the words, and so forth, but we muddled through it. A few of my co-workers were in the audience, along with the Six Flags representative who had organized us, members of the Harmony singing group, and plenty of deaf people. One of my co-workers was a real lifesaver: she fed us signficant parts of the show, and we were able to go on from there. Fortunately the show was over in 20 minutes, and that was that. All that was left was a group picture of all the terps that had volunteered, and after that I decided to leave. I wanted to hang around, but I had a litany of complaints (feet hurt from standing and walking, didn’t sleep well the night before, sweat was getting sunblock into my eyes) so I said my goodbyes and came home.